Soldiers of Ruin

by Stephen L. Nowland

  Aiden turned his attention back to Holister as she gruesomely pulled the arrow out of her leg, right before Pacian bowled her over in a desperate charge that left both of them wrestling on the floor. Pacian’s dagger flashed as he pulled it up high and seemed ready to bring the assassin’s life to an abrupt end, when he hesitated. It was only for a tiny fraction of time, yet it was enough for Holister to kick Pacian off him and drive the blade towards his face, slicing him up badly and almost taking off his ear in the process.

  Aiden saw his chance to finish her off and this time, he wasn’t taking any chances. Activating his still-warm gauntlet, Aiden hurled himself at the assassin and brought all of his incredible strength to bear, only to shatter the flagstones where she had been but a moment earlier.

  His senses were heightened by the magic he had invoked however, and he felt more than saw the assassin nearby. He rolled forward just as Holister’s twin blades glanced off the back of his breastplate, then spun around and drove his blade forward. The auldsteel weapon met thin air, leaving Aiden overbalanced and vulnerable. Holister didn’t press her advantage however, instead going to the aid of her dark-robed associate.

  The light of Solas Aingeal swept across the robes of Nellise’s opponent, cutting them away to reveal heavy metal armour underneath. Even that wasn’t enough to stop the might of the holy sword that burned him even through the steel protection.

  A blast of fire shot overhead when Aiden went to Nellise’s aid while Sayana continued to battle the castellan. With his protective bubble destroyed, the treasonous man was throwing all of his power at her. Giant hands composed entirely of flame attempted to grab her, only to be ripped apart and used to fuel a blast of flames back at the castellan. He deflected these away with a gesture of his hand and detonated on the ceiling, showering the battle with debris.

  Sayana was drawing more and more upon the energy surrounding her to power her magic. The light dimmed again and again as she sent a series of telekinetic punches at the man, knocking him half a dozen yards down the hall onto his back. Without even standing however, he pulled out a wand and invoked a storm of ice-cold winds upon the fight, engulfing even his dubious allies in the blast.

  Aiden and Holister were the only ones unaffected by the freezing blast, their incantations protecting them from the elements, so Aiden went on the offensive once more. The assassin was barely able to move, but her weapons were just as deadly as before.

  With a series of cuts and stabs that lacked any kind of finesse, Aiden sundered Holister’s blade and followed through with a devastating punch, cracking her jaw and dropping her to the floor in a spray of blood. Wary of his opponent’s resilience, Aiden didn’t hesitate to bring his blade down into the assassins’ chest, ending her life once and for all.

  The sounds of a huge fight outside the main doors could be heard — Sir Denholm had arrived with the City Watch. It was only a matter of time until they won this fight, but their survival was still in question. Ronan suddenly slammed into the floor next to him, gripping the raelani thief tight. Perry hit the ground first and was crushed by Ronan’s weight, and judging by the blood pooling on the ground, at least one of them had a weapon stuck into his body.

  Bleeding from half a dozen cuts and growing weaker as his incantations flickered out of existence, Aiden was just about spent. He saw Castellan Hodges locked in a duel with Criosa, battling her old teacher with skill and daring. It wasn’t enough, however, for the man was bristling with arcane power and he was outmatching her in every way.

  Sayana and Nellise focused on the dark priest, who seemed to grow stronger at the fall of their comrades. He shrugged off flames and other powerful energies Sayana threw at him as if they were nothing, and Aiden feared they weren’t going to last long enough for aid to arrive.

  Criosa was disarmed by a masterful stroke from the castellan, tossing her rapier out of reach and forcing her to the floor at the point of his blade.

  “You learned well, my dear, but did you really think you could defeat me?” he asked sadly.

  “Not for a moment,” she replied defiantly, “but I’ve still won.” She quickly reached up and grabbed the point of his sword while invoking a quick, single-word incantation. A snap of electricity shot up the blade, causing the castellan to jolt and twitch. He collapsed to the floor, paralysed, and the princess was quick to take advantage of the situation.

  She rolled to one side and retrieved her rapier, then rushed over to where the other two women were struggling to defeat the priest of death. While they had him distracted, Criosa crept up from behind and skewered the man with her rapier. The scene of the battle seemed to freeze in time as the stunned priest stood there, looking down at the blade in disbelief, as Criosa held it in place.

  With a final surge of defiance, Nellise drove Solas Aingeal into his body as well, and the result was explosive. The life force he had been drawing in suddenly exploded outwards, vaporising his body as the blinding light was released from its prison of flesh.

  The hammering on the doors grew to a fever pitch as the City Watch finally breached the barrier and poured into the room, bloodied from the fierce fighting out in the foyer. Aiden barely noticed, for his head spun more and more as the incantations he had invoked winked out of existence and the full impact of the battle made itself known upon his battered body. The last thing he remembered was Criosa’s face, creased with concern as she rushed towards him.

  Epilogue

  Aiden’s eyes cracked open and he squinted against the brilliant light for a moment, holding up a hand to shield his eyes. Details of his surroundings gradually came into focus.

  He was lying in a comfortable bed in an elegantly appointed room, lit by several candles. The intensity of the light was startling, until Aiden figured out that it was his response, not the candles themselves responsible for the dizzying sensations he felt.

  He slowly sat up, aware that his body was weary and bruised as he recalled the reasons why. Images of fighting for his life flashed through his mind, though it was disjointed and he had trouble making sense of it all.

  Dismissing the troubling thoughts for now, he glanced around more and noticed Princess Criosa sleeping in an overstuffed chair next to the bed, curled up under warm blankets. The fireplace across the other side of the room burned low.

  Criosa awakened suddenly, turning to look at Aiden as he struggled to adjust his many, many pillows. A sleepy smile spread across her face and she rubbed her eyes in a manner Aiden thought was cute.

  “Good evening, sleepy,” she murmured, uncoiling herself to sit up in the chair properly.

  “Your Highness,” Aiden replied, his voice cracking with dryness. Looking around, he saw a pitcher of water and a glass on the bedside table, so he reached over and flailed away with his arms in an attempt to pour some.

  “Let me get that for you,” she offered, pouring Aiden a glass and handing it to him. He clutched at it and drank it slowly.

  “Thanks,” he whispered, setting the glass down as Criosa sat on the bed.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Utterly drained,” he replied after a moment’s thought.

  “I’m not surprised, considering how much power you had invoked,” she admonished him slightly. “Sayana said you were setting fire to the carpets when you walked over them. Please promise me you’ll never do that again.”

  “If feeling like this is the consequence, I’ll never again touch any of those bloody scrolls,” Aiden assured her, rubbing his temples as a headache began to surface.

  “You’ve been asleep for over a day, now,” Criosa continued. “Nellise was concerned that you might have done yourself some permanent damage and had no idea when you would awaken. It seems you’ve managed to pull through with only some bumps and scrapes here and there.”

  “A whole day?” Aiden muttered in disbelief. “What happened after the fight?”

  “Captain Sir Denholm Sherrard arrived with the City Watch en masse and secured the castle,” Criosa ex
plained. “The castellan was arrested and taken into custody, and I am certain he will be put to death for his monstrous acts of treason.” A note of tension entered her voice when she spoke of him, and the details of her duel resurfaced in Aiden’s mind.

  “Stunning him with that little incantation you cast was a cunning move on your part,” he said. “He never even saw it coming.”

  “That was my hope, although I confess I was lucky to have everything fall into place,” Criosa answered sheepishly.

  “What of his associates?”

  “That vile priest of death was utterly destroyed, apparently. The touch of Solas Aingeal made sure of that,” the princess replied grimly. “Our spymaster, Mister Kinsey is being kept very busy chasing down the remainder of the castellan’s contacts within the city. He has been surprisingly forthcoming with details of his plan, as it happens, though I do not believe his cooperation will mitigate his other crimes or his inevitable sentence. I can still scarcely believe it — the man responsible for my own kidnapping was right under our noses the entire time. In fact, I would not have accepted it had I not heard it from his own mouth.”

  “He very nearly succeeded,” Aiden remarked, leaning his head back on the pillows. “He sent us on a fool’s quest around the kingdom searching for something that didn’t exist, but that we wanted to believe existed. He played upon our needs and used it for his own ends. If it wasn’t for Sir William and Valennia…” He trailed off as the emotions he had suppressed at the death of a man he had come to know and respect like a second father came to the surface, compounded by the terrible demise of Valennia at the hands of that damned priest.

  He started sobbing as the tiredness, death and destruction took its toll, and the young man threw his face into a pillow to let it all out. Criosa stroked his head gently, saying nothing for the next few minutes as Aiden worked through his feelings.

  “So, what will we do about the Ironlord now?” she asked, withdrawing her hand in a moment of self-consciousness. “We had put all of our hopes into the sceptre being able to banish the damned thing. Without it, we have no way of stopping the Ironlord once it returns.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” Aiden assured her, resisting the urge to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to work with the faculty at the University and go over every possible measure, go through every old book and make sure we haven’t missed anything.” Criosa smiled wanly and nodded, barely masking her deeper fears.

  A knock on the door interrupted the scene, and Criosa unconsciously moved back a little from Aiden as Ronan came in unbidden, closing the door behind him.

  “I hope I’m not intruding, Your Highness,” he said to Criosa.

  “Not at all,” she replied lightly. “My guest is finally awake, so your timing is perfect.”

  “You’re up,” Ronan confirmed with surprise. “That’s good. Thought you might have slept the week away.”

  “I still might,” Aiden said with a wan smile. Ronan came closer and reached out a hand, which he shook as firmly as he could manage. “Is this goodbye?” he asked of the sailor, who seemed to be carrying quite a lot of equipment on his back.

  “For now, yeah,” Ronan replied. “Thanks to everything we’ve done, I’ve been officially pardoned by the Crown for ‘meritorious service.’ Thanks for that, Highness, I’ve been trying to move on with my life for a few years and it’s the clean break I need. I’ll be serving with the navy for a few more years, and then my life is my own.”

  “You are most welcome, Ronan,” Criosa replied warmly.

  “Sayana wants to have a deep, meaningful talk with me about our relationship, so if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to the Redoubtable. It’s been both an honour and a pain in the backside Aiden. It’s a damn shame about Val and William, but I can’t think of a better death than fighting to protect this little jewel of civilisation we call Aielund.”

  “I’m partial to the idea of dying on a bed in my old age, but you might have something there,” Aiden replied with a smile. “Take care of yourself, mate.” He was genuinely sad to see the man leaving, but understood the reasons. To their collective surprise however, Ronan went to the window and climbed outside. The reason for this became obvious a few moments later when another knock at the door and Nellise, Sayana and Pacian came through.

  Criosa excused herself, saying she had an important event to organise and left them to reunite at last. They shared stories about the exploits of Valennia and Sir William, the others almost in disbelief when Aiden finally told them about his battle with the dragon Vindictus, and how he conquered his own fears in the process.

  Sayana was very distraught over Val’s death, for the two of them had become as close as true sisters in their time together. In the end, the akoran warrior’s simmering anger had been her undoing, leaving her susceptible to the goading of their enemies.

  Of all of them, she had seemed the most unstoppable, and it was a stark reminder to them all that nothing was immortal. They had both been superb allies in their quest and would be sorely missed. Aiden grew sleepy after a time, and the others withdrew to allow him further rest.

  By the end of the next day, the weary young man was feeling good enough to venture out of the room, which he discovered was actually the princess’s suite. The sounds of hammering and sawing could be heard echoing along the halls as workmen went about repairing the damage done during the battle in the throne room.

  Duke Charles was also up and about, although he looked as if he had aged ten years since Aiden had last seen him. The old courtier had experienced a heart attack during the confrontation, but more than that, he now carried the disappointment over the treachery of his old friend, Castellan Hodges. Nobody had gone unscathed in the events of the past few weeks, as Mister Kinsey rounded up a shadow network of spies with raid after successful raid in various places throughout the city.

  On the dawn of the third day after the demise of the conspirators, Aiden was summoned to the throne room by an officious servant, who insisted he dress appropriately for the occasion. Feeling self-conscious in the ridiculous finery he was forced to wear, Aiden followed the man out to the royal court to discover a large gathering of the nobility within the large chamber.

  Making his way through the crowd, Aiden found Nellise nearby, although he almost didn’t recognise her in the magnificent pink flowing dress she wore. She seemed almost as uncomfortable as Aiden in her extravagant clothing and expressed a certain bewilderment at being summoned. They didn’t have time to discuss the matter before horns blared at the front of the room, where the princess, resplendent in a flowing gown and wearing a modestly sized diamond tiara, rose to address the crowd.

  “My Lords and Ladies, members of the royal court and representatives of the Church of Aielund, I bid you welcome to this commemoration of the men and women who fell in solemn duty to our beloved country.”

  “You have no doubt heard of the true nature of the plot against the Crown, perpetrated by one of our own, whose name shall never be spoken again,” she continued, speaking with all the grace and majesty one would expect from the daughter of the ruler of the Kingdom. “What you may not have heard, are the names of those who gave their all to thwart the schemes that threatened the stability of our Kingdom.”

  “Sir Godfrey Davis, of the Order of Aielund and adjutant to the duke, perished on the Isle of the Dead, as did Sir William Bryce-Clifton, of the Order of the Rose Eagle. The sacrifice of these knights was necessitated by the lies they were told, but they went willingly to protect the Kingdom they loved.”

  “Closer to home, Valennia Far-Eagle, a warrior of the akoran mountain people fought with great valour and strength, but was undone by the machinations of a cult thought to have been extinguished long ago. The clergy at the Church assure me that these followers of darkness have been utterly eradicated and the castle sanctified once more.”

  “Finally, Archon Cedric Cain of the Holy Inquisitors died in mysterious circumstances not long be
fore the confrontation here at the castle. He is thought to have run afoul of the miscreants plotting against us, and died in service to God and the king. His experience and zeal will be missed within the halls of the Church, but his service will always be remembered.”

  “There is one final order of business to attend to here,” she went on. “Sir William was the last of his order, one that upheld the virtues of chivalry long after others perished through time and fate. Given recent events, these are ideals we are sorely in need of and so here, now, I will induct two new members into the Order of the Rose Eagle for their stellar conduct in the recent crisis. Would Aiden Wainwright and Nellise Sannemann step forward?”

  Aiden glanced wide-eyed at Nellise, who had flushed a bright red as the attentions of the entire assembly turned to them. Dumbfounded, the two of them slowly made their way to the front as people parted before them like a wave.

  Criosa smiled fondly at them as they stood awkwardly before her. Nellise curtseyed and Aiden bowed low, as was expected. The princess, her rapier resting in her hands, stepped down from the dais and walked towards them in a stately manner.

  “In memory of Sir William’s sacrifice, it is my great pleasure to bring you into the Order of the Rose Ealge, as a token of the Crown’s gratitude and respect for your courageous conduct,” she said aloud. “Do you swear to uphold the virtues and beliefs that the order stands for, and comport yourselves in a manner befitting knights of Aielund at all times? Do you swear fealty to your king, Seamus Roebec the First and his daughter, Criosa Roebec?”

  “I swear,” Nellise replied, her eyes misting over with fervour at the accolade.

  “I swear,” Aiden stated with similar conviction, still hardly able to believe this was really happening.